Main content
MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 12
Lesson 1: Self-identity- Self identity questions
- Self concept, self identity, and social identity
- Self esteem, self efficacy, and locus of control
- Overview of theories of development
- Freud's psychosexual development
- Erikson's psychosocial development
- Vygotsky sociocultural development
- Kohlberg moral development
- Social influences
- George Herbert Mead- The I and the Me
- Charles Cooley- Looking glass self
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Kohlberg moral development
Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development argues that early childhood is divided into five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Each stage is associated with a specific erogenous zone, and the child's experiences during these stages can influence their behavior later in life. Freud believed that if a child does not successfully resolve a stage, they may develop "fixations" or patterns of behavior that persist into adulthood. Created by Shreena Desai.
Want to join the conversation?
- These are pretty similar terms but I've learnt the three broad category stages to be Pre-Conventional, Conventional, and then Post-Conventional.
Within PreOperational.
Stage 1. Obedience
Stage 2: self-interest
Within Conventional
Stage 3: Societal Norms
Stage 4: law and order
Within Post-Conventional
Stage 5: social contract
Stage 6: universal ethical principles(54 votes) - Why are so many of the videos so quiet?! :( :( - I even plug external speakers into my computer and still the sound is so low!(29 votes)
- I'm not having any problems with earphones at volume of 40/100, except for some humming. Either it's been fixed or you people need adequate playback equipment.(0 votes)
- Interesting. I feel like the questions Kohlberg asked the kids regarding the Heinz story were very similar to CASPer test questions. I wonder if this test is just a way for them to test in which level of moral development we are...hmmm(9 votes)
- I couldn't hear her properly, am I the only 1 😱(8 votes)
- The way you argued the sixth stage (UEP) sounds more like people are going against the norms and laws of a large society, but only to fight for some smaller society they are a part of, which seems to fit in stage 3. Stage 6 is far more complex than this, and is difficult to explain unless you are at that level in my opinion. I believe what Kohlberg was trying to say with Stage 6 is that one can have moral reasoning that goes beyond the bounds of society itself.(6 votes)
- Hmm, the way I learned this is a bit different. It's not that each stage has a certain right/wrong view, rather their can be multiple different views from the same stages. For example, for Social Contracts, not everyone in this stage believes the value of life is greater than the law, however that may just be reasoning for one view. All in all, you different views may exist for the same stage, but the reasoning for that view is fairly consistent.(5 votes)
- Am I the only one who doesn't like her lectures? She talks too detailed and short, and writes little and very vague notes.(5 votes)
- Jesus! What's with the Audio!(5 votes)
- If a person dies of hungry and the day before you passed this person on the street and didn't give this person 10 dollars to get food are you a murderer?
Of course not. A person cannot be made to bear burdens presented by random chance.(0 votes)- Sure, I agree!
I think the question becomes more controversial if you are aware that they will die of starvation in a day, and you know that $10 would save their life, since they would be getting government support in 2 days, THEN would you be a murderer to deny them of the $10?(7 votes)
- Ghandi didnt reach this stage because he willingly deceived a certain group of people while ultimately benefiting himself and his friends selfishly. 9:40(2 votes)
Video transcript
Voiceover: Let's take a
look at Laurence Kohlberg. So Laurence Kohlberg developed the moral
theory of development. Now, this is much different than the other three theorists that we talked about
earlier, but at the same time, his theory was based upon
cognitive development, so that's how it was similar
to Vygotsky's. However, he looked at how people developed
their morals, versus their overall development, emotional, physical
development throughout life. So, Kohlberg hoped to discover the ways in which moral reasoning changed as people
grew. So the way he actually did this is
interesting. He looked at children, which is, pretty
common among all of the other theorists we talked about,
Vygotsky, Freud, and Erickson. They all looked at children cuz obviously
that's where a lot of the most fascinating development in growth occurs
in rapid growth occurs, is during that adolescent
period. So what Kohlberg did is he told a bunch of
children, many dilemma story situations. So he told these stories to children of
all ages and he asked many questions to discover how people how people reasoned through these moral
issues. So the most famous dilemma situation was
that of Mr. Heinz, some man in Europe. And I'm just gonna narrate this story quickly because it's a pretty famous
situation. So, this is how the story goes. Heinz's wife is dying from a particular
type of cancer. Doctors said a new drug might save her,
and the drug had been discovered by a local chemist, and
Heinz tried desperately to buy some. But the chemist was charging ten times the
money it cost to make the drug, and this was way more than
Heinz could afford. So, Heinz could only raise half the money even after help from his family and
friends. So he explained to the chemist that his
wife was dying and begged and asked her if he
could have the drug for cheaper or at least pay the money that he still owed at a later
time. But the chemist refused. He said that the drug he discovered was
going to be very profitable. So Mr. Heinz was desperate to save his
wife. So later that night, he broke into the
chemist's office, and stole the drug. So this was the most famous dilemma. And it's called the Heinz Dilemma. And after he told this story to the
children, Kohlberg asked them a series of questions, like should
Heinz have stolen the drug? Would it change anything is Heinz did not
love his wife? What if the person dying was a stranger,
would it make a difference? And should the police arrest the chemist
for murder if the woman died? So after compiling and analyzing all of
the responses that the children gave Kohlberg analyzed three distinct
levels, of moral reasoning. So the first of these is the
pre-conventional or the pre-moral stage. The second is the conventional stage. And the last is the post-conventional
stage. So I've set this up kind of like a ladder. I guess it looks more like a bunch of steps, but think of this as the ladder of
morality. So, Kohlberg said that people can only pass through these levels in the order
listed. So first have to go through these then
this, then this. And each new stage replaces the reasoning
typical of the earlier stage. And he also said that not everyone
achieves the last stage. So the first level actually before I go
on, each of these levels was then further split
into two levels. So altogether there are six stages of
morality development. So the first pre-moral stage. Had the first level. So the first level is obedience versus
punishment. So, obviously this level deals with
children, people of a younger age. So at this basic level, authority is
outside the individual, and reasoning is based on
physical consequences of actions. So children see rules as fixed and
absolute. So obeying the rules is a means to avoid
punishment. So if the child is good, they're going to
avoid being punished by their parent. And if they are punished, that means they
must have done something wrong. Now the second stage in this is called
individualism and exchange. So, let me write that out. And in this stage basically, children
recognize that there is not just one right view that is handed
down by the authorities. So they start to understand that different
individuals have different viewpoints. So after we pass through these two stages
we can move up the ladder this way into the
conventional stage. And at the conventional stage, there are
two more steps. So, we can do this as step three. So at this stage, authority is internalized, but not questioned, and
reasoning is based on the norm of the group to which
the person belongs. So stage three is all about good boy. And good girl. Sounds kinda funny. Not versus, but good boy and good girl. So what I mean by this is that the child
or the individual is good in order to be seen as being good
by other people. So now they're taking it to other people's
thoughts into account. So there's an emphasis on conformity. So being nice and having that
consideration of how choices influence our relationships
is important. The fourth stage of morality is
maintaining social order. So law and order. And here the child becomes aware of the
wider rules of society. So judgements, concern, obeying rules in
order to uphold the law and to avoid guilt. Its all about what society says at this
point. So once we're past that, we can move on
even further into stage three, which is split down further into
stages five and six. So here, at stage five we have the social
contract. So, in the post-conventional phase, or
stage, individual judgement is based on
self-chosen principles. So we're beyond law and order. We're thinking at an even higher level,
and we're having higher moral reasoning. It's based more on individual rights and
justice for the greater good. So in the social contract step, the
individual becomes aware that even though rules and laws exist for
the good of the greater number of people, there are
times that this law in order still may work against the
interest of particular people. So the issues aren't always clear cut. So for example in Heinz's dilemma, was the
protection of life more important than breaking the
law against stealing? Well according to people that reach this
level level five of the social contract. Yes, the protection of life is more important then breaking the law and
stealing. Which is down here at level four. So the rules of law are important for
maintaining society, but members that reach this
level, realize that society should also agree upon these standards and
that sometimes the law must be broken to uphold these
higher morals. And the sixth step, the last step, of
moral reasoning according to Kohlberg, is based on the universal,
ethical principle. So over here people at this stage develop
their own set of moral guidelines which may or may not
fit the law. So the principles apply to everyone such
as human rights, justice, and equality. And the person who upholds and believes in
this wholeheartedly, has to be prepared to act and defend these
principles. Even if it means going against the rest of
society in the process. And even if they have to obey consequences
of disapproval or imprisonment. And Kohlberg believed that very few people
reach this stage. So, actually can you think of a few people in history, famous people that have
reached this stage? I would think that Gandhi was one person
that reached that stage. How many times was he put into prison? What about Nelson Mandela, or even Martin
Luther King? There are so many people, that believed in
these universal rights of equality for all people, even if it went
against the law and order of the society at that time, they still upheld
this and they were prepared to have to pay the consequences that the law would put
against them, the restraints. So they're the ones who had the highest
level of morality according to Kohlberg